The US-China trade war is slowing growth in the mobile biometrics market, suggest comments made by a senior Goodix executive at the latest Mobile World Congress.

Speaking to the Nikkei Asian Review, Goodix CTO and COO Pi Bo said, “Under the current conditions, it has become very unlikely for Chinese tech companies like us to acquire companies in the U.S.” And much the same could be said with respect to potential acquisitions in Europe, he added.

Pi did not go so far as to assert that Goodix had, in fact, been eyeing potential acquisitions in these markets. And he did add that “[o]n the business side, we don’t feel anything irregular currently.” But the comments certainly suggest that Goodix is now at a level where the fingerprint sensor specialist is looking to throw its weight around in the global mobile biometrics market.

The Nikkei Asian Review report cites IHS-Markit analysis in asserting that Goodix attained the top position in the global fingerprint sensor market in 2018, with 33 percent marketshare. The company certainly emerged as a leading supplier of pioneering in-display fingerprint sensor technology, which emerged as an important new trend in the smartphone market over the past year.

Showing further candor, Pi also acknowledged that Apple’s abandonment of fingerprint sensors in its latest smartphones had been ‘a big blow’; but Apple has never been a Goodix client, and Pi insisted that his firm retains a strong client network of Android smartphone makers.